The invention relates to a device for driving at least one rotary screen printing stencil, comprising first main drive means having a first gear wheel which meshes with a circular toothed element which is connected to the stencil, and the axis of which coincides with the axis of the stencil, and second main drive means for moving a web to be printed at right angles to the axis of the stencil and against the stencil, the first and second main drive means being synchronized with each other.
Such a device, which is known in practice, has the disadvantage that with varying web speed or varying friction between the web to be printed and the stencil, for example as a result of varying viscosity of the printing ink used, the peripheral speed of the stencil varies through the occurrence of play between the teeth of the first gear wheel and the teeth of the toothed element of the stencil. As a result, jumps can occur in a pattern printed by the stencil, while the jumps of patterns printed by different stencils are independent of each other, and the quality of the printed web can deteriorate in a clearly perceptible manner. In an attempt to find a solution to this problem, the speed of the web can be selected so that it is higher than the peripheral speed of the stencil, so that the stencil is, as it were, driven by the web and retained by its drive. However, in this case also, for the above-mentioned reasons, this does not offer a completely reliable solution.